Boost Productivity for Your Team With Easy-to-Use Apps

The great thing about a rapidly changing world is that many of those changes result in better productivity. There are tools that help you stay on top of your life and work. Most of these apps run on the mobile or tablet device you already own. Some people wonder where they should start to be more productive. You will see an improvement with any one of these tools. Pick one and use it. Use as many of the features as you can. The resource management tools don’t make you productive; it’s how you use them.

Evernote for Business

Evernote started as a simple clipping service for people to save cool things they found on websites. It has grown into an application that helps you organize your teams, according to forbes.com, and your team’s work products. Each member gets an account and has access to their own space as well as the Business Library.

The library is where teams can share all types of project information including research notes, presentations, and documents in progress. You can save all or part of a website into Evernote as examples or part of your research. There is a $10 monthly fee for the service. It runs on most smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops or accessed via a web application.

Dropbox for Teams

Dropbox was one of the early cloud-storage pioneers providing people with the ability to store and share all types of content. It has evolved into a collaboration tool for groups needing space to work on and share content, according to forbes.com. A simple app installs on your device that creates folders which integrate with your existing operating system. Those folders sync up automatically with corresponding folders in your Dropbox account. You can store documents, presentations, audio, videos, images and whatever files your team needs to share. Pricing runs from $99 to $795 per year depending on the number of team members you want to sign up and the amount of storage you need.

IBM Lotus Symphony 3.0

If you are an entrepreneur with limited resources but need to get a team off the ground fast, then this might be the tool for you. And if you’re over 40 then you’ve probably heard of Lotus. One of the earliest office automation tools, according to PCMag.com, Lotus has been resurrected based on the open-source platform OpenOffice. The is a full office automation tool with word processing, spreadsheet and presentation tools. The interface has been completely reworked to make it easy for anyone to use. The price: free. It runs on Windows, Mac and Linux computers. A good tool for a small business that has other places to spend its money.

Abukai Expenses

If you’re on the go with a lot of business- and travel-related expenses, you probably dread sorting through receipts and filling out expense reports. According to PCMag.com, Abukai Expenses is a cloud-based service that’s lets you take pictures of your receipts and receive a completed expense report. It has a number of customization options and can be integrated with many different financial systems. The app is available on Android, Blackberry and iPhone. The price runs from $39 to $99 per year depending on the type of account you sign up for.

Toodledo

Sometimes you just want a simple way to keep a list of things to do and a few notes. Toodledo, according to toodledo.com, gives you that and the flexibility to do even more. Each task has a number of parameters like due date, status and priority. You can keep running notes on each task, store tasks in folders to organize them or sort them a variety of ways. You can print your tasks in a number of formats including a little pocket-sized booklet. They have third-party tools available to link your tasks with other applications. Apps are available to view and work with your tasks on the Blackberry, Android and iPhone devices. From the desktop, laptop or tablet, a web application accesses your Toodledo account. The price is free to $29.95 a year depending on the options and storage you want.